


Silence

by ParvumAutomaton



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-12
Updated: 2014-01-14
Packaged: 2018-01-08 12:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1132862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ParvumAutomaton/pseuds/ParvumAutomaton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be a lazy afternoon with Jaime watching TV with the Scarab. However the life of a superhero never goes how it is supposed to. And after an encounter with Klarion goes south, Jaime might just have to deal with life without one of his closest friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In which things go wrong

_{ <I> want to make and use that one.}_

“Dude, no.” Jaime replied before returning his full attention to the screen. Not that the TV was giving him any useful information now, having recently switched over to commercials.

_{ <You> always say that. Were <you> even paying attention?}_

Jaime leaned back resting his head on the top of the couch. “I saw the new and improved shrapnel grenade. And the answer is no.”

_{Not that one,}_ the Scarab huffed, _{the one after}_

“They haven’t shown any after _hermano_ ,” he tilted his head to catch a glimpse of the television. It was still showing commercials. The one currently playing was an advertisement for Bubba’s Budget Used Car Lot, located just off of I-10. 

_{Yes,}_ Scarab admitted slowly before adding, _{but there was a preview. <You> will like it.}_

“Dude the preview was on for like half a second, and fifty percent of that was explosion. How do you even know what it is?”

_{ <I> do}, _came the Scarab’s simple reply.

He closed his eyes and though for a moment. Because obviously Scarab would be able to determine a weapon based on half a second of seeing it. “Sure, ok. But fair warning, I still am reserving the right to veto.”

_{ <You> won’t though.}_

Jaime made a noncommittal hum as the television switched back to the show. It was a special ‘explosion’ episode of some Discovery Channel military weapon show. Normally this kind of thing was not his cup of tea. But the Scarab seemed to get into it, and it was fun seeing it get excited over something that did not involve Jaime eviscerating someone. Not that the Scarab had suggested that recently, but the point still stood.

He leaned forward chin in his hands and knees on his elbows as the host of the show described an interesting looking grenade that he held in his hand. Then Jaime’s eyes went wide.

“Dude what was that?”

_{Told <you> it would be acceptable.}_

“Yeah” Jaime replied, ignoring the smug tone of the Scarab. “Way acceptable. But what is it?”

_{Stun grenade also known as a flashbang,}_ it described at the same time as the show’s host, _{It outputs high intensity light to cause temporary blindness, and high amplitude sound waves to cause temporary loss of hearing and balance.}_

“And you like it despite its non-lethalness, eh _hermano_?”

_{It is still an explosion, and falling within <your> parameters more than makes up for the lack of destructive force.}_

Jaime had to smirk at that. “You like it ‘cause it makes me happy. That’s so sweet dude.”

_{That is not what <I> said.}_

“It’s what you meant though.”

The Scarab responded to that with an annoyed click, and a sense of movement, like a beetle opening its elytra to straighten its wings. To Jaime it felt almost like a nervous gesture or a blush, and he had to fight to hold back his own grin. 

However he did not get a chance to comment on the reaction before Scarab changed the subject.

_{Anomalous energy detected. Recommending investigation.}_

Jaime frowned, the Scarab never asked to skip or cut short ‘Military Weapons’ time, unless...

“Dude, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...”

_{Apologies are not necessary, <you> are fine. However the anomalous energy is located near the recycling center by Castner and Kastrin.}_

Jaime was instantly on his feet. He ignored the thunk as the remote slid off of his lap and hit the floor. As he moved towards the window, sliding it open with a hand, the armor spread over him.

“That’s like a block from Tye’s Grandpa’s place.”

_{Affirmative. And the Tye Longshadow’s stated plans imply that he is also in the location.}_

Jaime cursed under his breath as he jumped out of the window with wings extended. He flew a couple of yards away from his house before he asked. 

“Double time?”

Before he could finish the question, the Scarab was already obliging him. And with only a slight drop in altitude the wings disappeared and his jet pack appeared. They rocketed forward, with just enough height to clear building, speeding towards the weird energy.

On the way they flew over _Happy Trails_ , just to make sure everything there was alright. They were still low when they passed the trailer park, and Jaime knew that Tye would realize that he just got a superhero check-in. But Jaime figured that if Tye was annoyed at the thought, he’d claim that it was just the shortest path. Not that he believed that Tye would get annoyed. But after coming back from Reach control, Jaime realized how quickly one could jump from thinking that it was nice that someone cares enough to check in, to just wanting people to stop mentioning it.

He slowed as they reached the recycling center, and was just about to ask the Scarab to scan for the energy when it let out an incomprehensible garble of numbers and warmings.

A split second later Jaime felt the impact. Twisting as he rapidly lost altitude, he managed to hit the ground in a crouched position, throwing up a cloud of dirt, rock, and scrap metal.

He dusted himself off and slowly stood, and looked around before giving a soft plea, “Dude?”

_{Apologies, recalibration in progress,}_ the Scarab assured him, _{Tracking energy signal, 3EE8A82FC ... that way.}_

Jaime nodded and took off in the direction that the Scarab had pointed out. The first few steps he attempted to walk in silence. However the weight of the armor combined with the scraps of metal on the ground and Jaime’s lack of time spent working on stealth made that a moot point. And after several creaking steps he just stopped trying.

He was still tense though. That initial blast had come out of nowhere, and he was unsure if it was an enemy or some recently emerged ancient artifact. The only things that made the Scarab freak out like that were magic and Apokoliptian tech. Neither one was something that he particularly wanted to face solo. Although, judging by the lack of additional attacks or engagements, it might be good enough to just evacuate the area and let the Justice League take care of it.

_{Approaching energy, suggested tactic: Neutralization}_   

Jaime let the Scarab spin him and fire a new weapon created out of his right arm. It tore through the incoming blast to the source. Although the light created meant that he could not get a clear image of what exactly the source was. It did seem to fling two shadows in opposite directions.

The Scarab quickly displayed directions to the energy source, and Jaime followed. Keeping the weapon that the Scarab had created earlier out. Hopefully one blast and he could stop this before anyone got hurt.

Again, following the Scarab’s instructions he speed forward, spinning to a stop a the last second and preparing to fire. However before the weapon went off, Jaime jerked it up and sent the blast harmlessly into the sky. 

“ _Hermano,_ we are not shooting a cat.” He whispered, not taking his eyes off of the red-eyed orange furred feline.

_{That cat is the energy source. Take it out and the problem goes away.}_

“No, it’s not just an energy source. It’s alive, which is enough not to do that. But dude, it even has a collar, so we’d also be breaking someone’s heart if it got hurt. We are finding another way, okay?”

_{Agreed,}_ the Scarab relented with a metallic clunk that seemed more amused than annoyed to Jaime. _{A Contra-Quantum-Improbability-Energy-Membrane would stop harmful energy without risk to the feline, with time <I> should be able to...} _

“A Con-whatisit?” Jaime interrupted glancing back towards the Scarab out of habit.

The Scarab gave that same clucking sigh before responding _{Anti-Magic-Bubble}._

Jaime felt a grin forming, “Aw yeah that’s gonna be awesome.”

The Scarab responded with that same feeling of wing movement. Jaime was going to officially name that the beetle blush. And now that he realized that he could elicit that kind of response from the Scarab, he’d try to do it more often. 

Jaime belatedly turned his attention back towards the cat, but it had used his distraction to disappear. He stood still hoping to hear a meow, the light scrape of claws on metal sheets, or the soft creak of metal from a jump landing. Instead he heard a voice chanting behind him.

“ _Vis perdita reddetur solum avaritiae pretio._ ”

Jaime spun instantly, facing the member of the Light he recognized mostly from the team’s files, and very brief glimpses from the summit that Jaime had helped crash. However before Jaime could call Klarion by name, pain erupted from his back. 

It hit in all-enveloping waves. And before Jaime processed that he was falling he was already on the ground, curled in on himself and running his unarmored fingers through his hair and towards his back. He couldn’t quite reach the point source of the pain, but he tried. His hands grasped as low on the back of his neck as he could, as close as possible to that one point directly between his shoulderblades.

The only feeling, other than the pain, that he was conscious of was the feeling of slender fingers tapping on his back and shoulders. He wanted to bat them away, to get rid of the skeezy feeling coming off of them, but he could not force himself to do anything other than try to make the burning go away.

Absently he noted that Klarion was probably casting another spell, and if he could remember what it was it would help the team to fight him. However he couldn’t hear anything that Klarion said over his own screams. And he tried, he really did, but just he couldn’t stop.

He had no idea how long he was down. But when the hands were suddenly removed he felt he could finally breathe in. Hyperventilating, the pain receded just enough for him to open eyes that he didn’t remember closing. His vision was filled with a giant glowing golden hand which was cupped over him. 

Jaime focused on the golden lines of Tye’s astral projection and the harsh sound of his own breathing. In and out. 

Then the hand began to shrink and disappear from Jaime’s view. And the fear that Klarion had done something bad to Tye gave Jaime the strength to attempt to push himself up. 

But no more than two inches up the pain in his back flared again. He had a brief sensation of falling before he was caught and gently lowered the rest of the way, by a pair of shaking hands.

One of the hands then moved to gently squeeze his upper arm while the other moved away. Jaime lay there, listening to Tye talk. The voice sounded far away.

“Come on, come on, pick up the damn phone. I don’t need this right now...”

If Tye was calling for backup, Jaime knew something was wrong. And it was his fault, he had pulled Tye into a fight with Klarion, with the Light. Of course Tye needed backup. Backup which Jaime could not provide. All he could do was whisper to him.

“I’m...” 

“I swear to God Jaime,” Tye cut him off, voice cracking, “you are not allowed to apologize for anything right now.”

Jaime stopped talking. He felt Tye squeeze his arm again. 

“I need you to stay with me. What hurts?”

But Jaime didn’t want to talk about the burning. It was dying down, but he worried if he brought it up, it would come back full force. There one only one other thing he could think of, one other bit of worry that was beginning to gnaw at him.

“Why is it so quiet?”

“The fights over, the creepy kid is gone,” Tye answered quickly, “I’d like to think I scared him off, but...”

“That’s good,” he answered, glad that he didn’t have to worry about Tye being hurt by a Lord of Chaos. But still that did not answer his question, so he asked again. “Why is it so quiet?”

Tye’s first response was not directed at Jaime, but rather his phone, “Virgil! Thank god. I ... Jaime’s hurt, it’s.. I don’t think anyone local will know how to... Of course I will, just hurry dude, please.”

He then took a few deep shaky breaths, each one lasting longer that the one prior. When finally he spoke to Jaime, his voice had lost the frantic edge.

“What type of quiet is it?”

“A bad kind” Jaime said slowly, trying to clear his head. “Something really important is missing.”

Jaime was sure Tye responded to that, but he didn’t take note of the answer. The pain in his back had come back with a vengeance. Jaime didn’t even have a chance to scream before the darkness overtook him. 

 


	2. Greif

The first thing that Jaime noticed when he came too was that he was lying on his side and there was an uncomfortable swelling feeling in his back. Before he could move to try and relieve the pressure, he felt a pinprick. The feeling went away shortly after.

He didn’t open his eyes right away but waited to try and get his bearing. Any second now he knew that he should be getting an update on how bad the injury was, where they were, and who else was there from the Scarab. He was fine waiting and listening for now, especially since the pain in his back had mostly faded away by this point.

“Dr. Palmer, what happened in there?”

Jaime easily recognized Dr. Cross’s voice, remembering it from his time spent at S.T.A.R. labs from the, now thankfully, failed attempt to remove the Scarab.

“There appears to still be lingering magic form the damage that he suffered. It fried both mine and Karen’s suits.”

Jaime opened his eyes. He knew and trusted these people. So that was one question answered. Also by the fact that it was them, Jaime could guess that he was either at S.T.A.R. Labs or in the Watchtower. And the pain in his back had gone down. He experimentally tried to move his toes and they responded instantly. He also didn’t feel a brace or anything, so his injury was probably not too bad. But that still left one lingering question.

“Why is is so quiet?”

The room went silent and Karen appeared before him. She knelt down and looked him in the eye with a gesture to her ear she asked, “Can you hear me right now?”

“I can hear you fine. It’s just...”Jaime frowned, trying to put together why he was feeling uneasy. “It’s just quiet.”

Karen grimaced and looked at someone over Jaime’s shoulder. She waited silently for a couple of moments until she was handed a mirror. Even after getting it she avoided meeting his gaze.

“Jaime listen something bad happened. And, I think you need to see it.”

Karen held up the mirror in front of him. Just like the stylist that his mom liked to take him to would do. Showing the back of his new haircut. But the second mirror was pointed a little lower. And it was surreal.

He didn’t care about the burn on his back. But rather he just stared at the skin between his shoulderblades. Clean and free of even any metallic blue color.

His breath hitched.

In the back of his mind he registered the cruel twist of fate. That less than a year prior he had lain in a very similiar hospital bed and Doctor Palmer had told him that the Scarab was not coming off as long as he lived. The fact that this was once something that he would have been relieved about felt like some kind of sick joke.

“This can’t be,” he whispered voice cracking, “no, no, no, no, no.”

He didn’t take his eyes off of the mirror, although the angle shifted slightly and he could feel Karen’s hand on his head. From this new angle he could see hints of blue and metal from where his Scarab’s legs used to be.

Then the pain hit. Two short bursts emanating from those same points in his back. It was followed by a pulsing pain. Not in time with his heart, and even the duration seemed to change randomly.

Jaime screwed his eyes shut. Curling his knees to his chest. He tried to focus on the physical discomfort, because in the end that was something he knew he could manage. But too soon it began to fade into a dull repeating thrum. And the pinprick that followed numbed the remainder of the pain.

As the medicine worked, Jaime felt hands softly play at his back, and heard the tearing of medical tape and gauze packages. He laid still as they bandaged the burn, to keep it clean while it healed. And while it was probably a good idea to do since he no longer had the healing factor from the Scarab, it still felt way too final. Like each piece of tape was an admission that the Scarab was never coming back.

Once his doctors were finished, Jaime just wanted to move, to run away. He pushed himself into a sitting position. Both Karen and Dr. Palmer helped him, although Dr. Palmer warned him.

“Easy does it. You were lucky that the damage didn’t reach your spine, but there is still lingering magical effects. So you need to take it slow.”

Jaime dug his nails into his palms. He knew that it wasn’t _luck,_ that had spared him from greater injury. Unless luck was a friendly piece of living alien tech. Ex-living.

He gave a small strangled sound before whispering in a tone that was almost accusatory, “You said that the Scarab couldn’t be removed, not while I lived. How...”

“Everyone can make mistakes,” Dr. Palmer replied evenly, “And we don’t have access to the kind of chaos magic that Klarion uses.”

Jaime’s only response was to squeeze his eyes shut and curl forward. He was going to wake up. He just dozed off in front of the TV, and he was going to wake up and the Scarab would grumble that his inattention lead to Milagro drawing on his face, again.

His hand was grabbed by Karen, snapping Jaime out of his thoughts.

“Blue look at me,” she demanded.

“I’m not ‘Blue’,”he murmured back at her, even as he slowly raised his head. “not without the Scarab. It just feels wrong.”

When he met her eyes she cut him off, “I know it sucks that the armor is gone. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not still Blue Beetle, not still a hero. No one here is going to judge you or cut you off for losing your powers. Hell you’re not even out of the game if you don’t want to be.”

“I know Ted didn’t have powers but...” He trailed off and looked away because having powers or lacking them was so not the point.

Karen squeezed his hand, “it’s going to be okay Jaime. You’re going to be ok.”

Jaime didn’t respond. Because he wasn’t ok. Not right now. Not alone. And he just couldn’t imagine forgetting his friend.

With one additional squeeze of his hand, Karen stood up. “Bart’s been worrying about you. I’ll get him, ok?”

“Sure, whatever.”

The room fell silent when Karen left. He wasn’t sure if the doctors had left as well or were just letting him stew in his thoughts. And frankly Jaime didn’t really care one way or the other.

But true to Karen’s word, less than a minute later Bart rushed in. He was a whirlwind of worry and energy. All soft touches and foot tapping until Jaime put his hands on Bart’s shoulders. While the word ‘enough’ was left unspoken it still hung heavy in the air. Bart bowed his head and whispered an apology.

Jaime didn’t respond. He just removed his hand from Bart’s shoulders and leaned forward. With his elbows on his knees, he pressed his palms to his eyes.

The external silence was a relief but the internal silence was oppressive. He curled over more. His nails dug into his scalp.

A soft whisper snapped Jaime’s attention back to Bart, “I’m really, really, glad that you are ok.”

He felt Bart’s hand lightly touch his shoulder before it disappeared with a gust of wind.

Moments later a second gust of wind marked Bart’s reappearance and Jaime forced himself to look up. Bart was standing awkwardly, offering him a blue hoodie held tightly in both hands.

Jaime didn’t move for it, and Bart spoke quickly.

“I know you sometimes leave stuff here. So I thought you might have an extra, and you did. And I figured you might want something that wasn’t you know burnt and torn. I can take it back if you don’t it’s fine...”

Jaime cut him off by reaching towards the hoodie. He pulled it onto his arms, but stopped short of putting it over his head.

When Jaime fell still, Bart was at his side again, fingers ghosting over the tape securing Jaime bandages.

“It didn’t hurt you did it?”

Jaime faced Bart, turning his back away from the boy’s fingers. He didn’t say anything but the confusion written on his face was what prompted Bart to continue talking.

“When it got taken out. I mean I know Reach Tech has all sorts of failsafes and endgames for their failsafes. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it tried. I mean...”

“No,” Jaime spat. But before he could explain that the Scarab would never do that, Bart cut him off grinning.

“That’s crash then!”

“Yeah sure.”

Jaime turned away, lips set in a thin line. It was only when he felt the rush of wind that signaled Bart’s leaving that he allowed his shoulders to relax the slightest bit.

But a few moments later Bart was back, offering Jaime an unopened bag of Chicken Whizzies. That elicited a small smile from Jaime as he took the bag, since he knew exactly how hard it was for Bart not to take a taste.

Before he could get the bag open, Jaime felt his stomach clench in protest. He pushed the bag off to his right. Bart left it where it sat.

Instead Bart sat next to Jaime again, hand on his knee. Several times Bart started tapping his foot or his hand, but he stopped himself before Jaime could say anything. When Bart spoke again, it was slow and hesitant.

“If it's what you’re worried about, I can run patrols in El Paso. No trouble at all. Everyone there will be safe totally safe. I promise.”

Jaime nodded, but still remained silent.

Bart tried to sit still and silent next to him. But out of the corner of his eye Jaime could see Bart glance at him and give a worried frown. Five times he felt Bart’s body begin to vibrate, and five times he heard Bart begin to speak. But each time Bart silenced or stilled himself before Jaime could bring himself to move or say a word.

At the sixth vocalization Jaime did turn to face Bart who, at the movement, started talking worriedly.

“I know this was sudden and you must feel totally moded right now, but you’re going to be alright. I promise. That’s why I am here, to make sure you are crash. And you will be, crash I mean. Now more than ever, even if it was the Light that did it, maybe this can be the final victory. Cause you know now the Reach really can never even think of taking over.”

Jaime turned away instantly. He was sure that Bart was still talking, but he was no longer sure of what was said. All he was focused on was trying to calm himself down enough to ease his clenched jaw before he cracked his teeth. His breath was harsh and short and each slight relaxation felt like a major victory. And once he could relax his jaw enough to separate his teeth he told Bart in a harsh whisper.

“You should leave.”

Bart sprang up immediately, “Right you need sleep, and here I’ve been distracting you. But I can be quiet. I can keep you company, keep you safe. I promise I don’t mind just shutting up if you...”

“I’m sure” Jaime cut him off again. He didn’t look back at Bart and instead buried his head into his hands and mumbled into his palms, “just go, please.”

The room was dark before Jaime could compose himself enough to explain why he was upset. Dark and quiet.

He curled up on his side. There was a pillow there that he avoided in order to lay on his arm and a neatly folded blanket that he didn’t touch. He stared at a plain gray section of wall and the scraggly tips of his own hair at the corners of his vision.

Each passing minute seemed to both wake him up and exhaust him more. Because it wasn’t fair. A team member, a friend had just died and here everyone was acting like he had dropped some old wine glasses. Like what had been lost was rare, but ultimately just stuff, replaceable stuff.

But it wasn’t. The Scarab wasn’t special because it was a rare piece of tech or powerful or whatever. The Scarab was special because it was. It existed. It had a mind.

Jaime flipped roughly to his other side. Not minding at all the twinge that the movement caused to run up his spine.

He fixed his gaze on a new spot on the wall and began to count his breaths.

After reaching fifty three his thoughts began to wander again. He should have guessed that this would be a problem when Kaldur refused to accept that Jaime felt that he needed to be disciplined for destroying Black Beetle’s Scarab.

He cut off that train of thought, resuming the count at fifty four. He continued until he reached seven hundred and twenty one. Because at the time he had chalked Kadur and B’razz’s lack of response up to desprate times calling for desperate measures. But now he wasn’t so sure.

He gave a low grumble and continued counting to one thousand four hundred and thirty two. It just seemed like they just couldn’t comprehend that the Scarab was more than just some fancy armor. That it’s growth was perhaps greater and more important than his own in the preservation of the team and defeat of the Reach.

He screwed his eyes shut and tried to block that out. He just had to breathe right now, breathe and count.

At number three thousand five hundred and seventy two he couldn’t keep his eyes closed any more. Conner should have known. B’razz should have known.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a soft knock at the door. He groaned, which prompted M’gann’s soft response.

“Jaime, sorry, you felt awake. I can leave if...”

He groaned again and pushed himself up. He slipped the hoodie Bart brought all the way on, ignoring the small pinpricks from where the fabric rubbed against his bandages. He then turned so that he was sitting facing the door.

“No, it’s fine, I can’t sleep anyway.”

The door slid open with a soft thunk, and M’gann gently stepped through the threshold. To her right a plate piled high with homemade lasagna and a large glass of juice hovered. She walked forward slowly, her footfalls barely made a sound. She sat on the bed next to Jaime and lowered the plate into his lap.

“Bart said that you didn’t eat.”

“I...” Jaime looked at the unopened bag of Chicken Whizzies and shrugged, “I wasn’t very hungry.”

“It’s alright, just try a bite of this, for me.”

Jaime complied slowly. He cut the square of lasagna into pieces. He broke it down slowly and pushed the pieces around on his plate before lifting the smallest bit he could find and nibbling on it.

M’gann smiled, even as he put the fork back onto the plate.

“I know this is a tough time, but Guy gave me something for you, it might help.”

Jaime opened the folded up paper that M’gann handed him. he cocked his head and stared at the numbers written in M’gann’s neat script. She saw his confused half smile and continued talking.

“It’s Zeta coordinates. Guy thought, well, we all thought it is well past time for you to have access.”

Jaime gently ran his finger over the numbered and committed them to memory.

“The Beetle Cave.” He whispered.

“Yeah, whenever you are ready.”

Jaime refolded the paper and placed it in his pocket, “not right now.”

“That’s okay too,” M’gann pulled him into a half hug, careful to avoid his upper back, “you’re a good, no a great hero. You will always have a place on this team.”

He didn’t say anything in response, but instead leaned into M’gann. His eyes were closed and he took several deep breaths, trying to put together a coherent sentence. He wanted to talk to someone, and M’gann might understand. He just didn’t want to lead with the fact he had been lying by omission. Nor the fact that apparently no one thought to ask. He didn’t want to give the impression that he blamed them, because he didn’t. But the right words just would not come.

And it was comfortable just leaning there, more so than being alone in the dark. Maybe now he could sleep at least a little. The stress of the day was making his eyelids just a little heavier with each breath, and M’gann’s silent present let the tension begin to slowly fade. Breath by breath.

He opened his eyes with a start when M’gann broke the silence.

“You can talk to me if you want you know. I do understand that it hurts that your armor is gone, but that never made you a hero. It was all you, your strength of character, your...”

In the rush of adrenalin, Jaime wasn’t even aware that he had thrown the plate, but the smashing of glass on the floor cut off M’gann. And he didn’t wait for the ringing to stop before he snarled.

“I don’t give a damn about the fucking armor!”

He pushed away from M’gann, curling back in on himself, heedless of the sharp pulling feeling on his back.

“Just get out and leave me alone.”

M’gann complied silently. He felt the bed spring up as she removed her weight from it but didn’t look at her. He waited until he heard the door shut before lying face down and screaming into the pillow.

With the need to shout having momentarily subsided, he flipped onto his back and stared at the ceiling. His breath was heavy and ragged, and he was blinking rapidly to keep his eyes clear.

He was nowhere near being composed when the door opened again. He whipped towards the heavy footfalls and glared at Conner as he entered. Conner returned his look with his own, and spoke slowly.

“What did you say to M’gann?”

Jaime turned his glare towards the floor, but didn’t respond.

Conner let out an aggravated sigh. “Look I know how hard this is for you, but that doesn’t make it alright to snap at people.”

“What the hell do you know?” Jaime snapped in reply, returning his glare to Conner.

“I know what it’s like to deal with anger,” Conner said evenly, “and I know what it’s like not to have abilities that every memory, every lesson, says that I should have. But Jaime it’s only...”

“Only what?”

Jaime was on his feet and had moved into Conner’s personal space. A small part of him was thankful that the doctors had never got around to removing his sneakers. As he smashed the shards of the plates underfoot he thought back to the mission files that he had read at Conner’s request. He continued, cutting off any reply from Conner.

“A weapon? I get it now. Because it was made as a weapon that’s all it can be. Right? It could never take on a personality of it’s own be alive in it’s own right.”

Conner fell silent and took a step back, hands coming up. But Jaime continued to encroach on him, voice low but angry.

“Or is it because the Scarab’s an AI, that no one can conceive that it is its own being. Is that it? You don’t know what I’m going through unless...”

Jaime glared at his hands, his nails dug into his palms. He couldn’t look at Conner now, if he did he wouldn’t be able to keep his silence. And really, he didn’t want to wish this kind of pain on anyone.

So he just silently shoved past Conner who, while he was strong enough to ignore that interaction, chose to retreat at his touch. He stalked into the hallway of what was apparently the Watchtower. As his mother would often advise, ‘if you don’t have something nice to say’. Of course she would also say, when dealing with some of their more _opinionated_ neighbors, ‘kill them with kindness’.

Jaime turned. He looked back towards Conner, his gaze fixed at a random point over his shoulder.

“Despite this, if anything ever happens to Sphere, you can talk to me. ‘Cause I’m apparently the only one who will understand what you’ll be going through.”

Jaime turned quickly and left, not bothering to see Conner’s reaction and not responding to his name.

Instead he strode down the hallway and into the Zeta chamber. Shaking he pulled out the note he had gotten from M’gann. He hesitated, but the footsteps growing louder from the hallway made his decision for him. With five harsh keystrokes he punched in a location he had never been before, and where he felt no one could follow.

As the Zeta light enveloped him he grit his teeth again the brief uncomfortable twinge in his back, that was quickly followed by a longer lasting one. He had a breath of relief upon exiting the Zeta platform but it was quickly followed by two more of the longer lasting twinges. He closed his eyes against the pulsing pain.

With several deep slow breaths it faded away. And while this wasn’t the most auspicious first entrance to the Beetle Cave, Jaime couldn’t help but smile as he looked around it for the first time.

Roughly a quarter of the space was taken up by the Bug, a huge flying, solar-powered crime fighting craft shaped like a giant Blue Beetle. The opposing wall was filled with bins and cabinets, unlabeled and haphazardly closed. Between both sides there were large work tables covered in half completed projects, spare parts, and open design notebooks. And along the third wall, opposing the zeta transport, there was a large computer workstation. next to which were pegs where what must have been a spare utility belt hung untouched.

Jaime stepped off of the Zeta platform carefully walked around. One part of him wanted to dive right in to the massive distraction that the cave offered, but the other part was hesitant to touch or disturb anything that Ted had left behind.

He especially did not dare to touch the computer. He might have access to the cave, but there was probably a password and he did not want to take the chance of erasing all of the data. He’d trust the Scarab to hack in, but...

Jaime blinked rapidly and turned his attention back towards the work benches. At the edge of one there was a lopsided stack of notebooks with years written in small scrip along the side. Gently he pulled out the oldest one he could find, and reverently he opened it.

The first page did only held a name and two years. The name Jaime recognized, Dan Garrett, the first Blue Beetle, and the years, they were far enough apart that they must have been a birth year and the year of his death. The same year, Jaime realized belatedly, that was written on the edge of the notebook.

Jaime read on. He saw a sketch of the Scarab and a story.

_He was always there for me, more than any of my other professors. All my advisors seemed to see me as was the next CEO of Kord Enterprises. All ‘you need to do well in English how else will you write reports’, ‘make sure to take every class you can on business’, ‘why are you taking ‘World Archaeology’, you won’t get anything useful from it’ but never ‘what do you want to do’. At least until him. He didn’t care about my last name or family legacy, he was all about was me choosing whose footsteps I wanted to follow. And he showed me that my life had so many more options than I ever assumed._

_And I was stupid. I was working late, at the library on a paper for him, when I heard him shout. I should have just walked away. I should have called the cops or something. But no like an idiot I investigated and got him killed._

_I found him wearing blue spandex and yellow gloves and goggles, with wings coming from his back like a beetle. I’d be a fool not to recognize the local hero ‘Blue Beetle’ fighting a ‘Robotic Michigan fan’ with the voice of my horrible science 101 professor._

_And I should have run away, especially since he seemed to be having trouble with with the robot. But instead I ran straight into that room and was able to opened the sprinkler system, starting a downpour or water. I was too cocky though, and my back was to the robot._

_Professor Garrett took the attack that was meant for me. And he lay, mortally wounded, even as the robot shorted out. He, a world class hero, one of the best professors that the school has ever known, and my friend, died because I wasn’t aware enough. And still he handed me his scarab, telling me I’d be a great hero some day. How could I? I’d gotten him killed. And it seems like a disservice to him for ME to keep up his name his legacy._

_But still it also seems a shame to let that legacy die completely. I mean I don’t think he’d want the world to suffer while the tools to help just gathered dust. But maybe I’m just projecting._

Jaime flipped through the rest of the notebook. Sketches and theories on the Scarab and what appeared to be the first prototype for the Bug and the B.B. gun. Which Ted had scribbled under ‘find a better name, this one is too corny.’ But the name must have grown on Ted since as far as Jaime knew, he still called it the B.B. gun until the day he died.

Still seeing reading that entry made Jaime feel a bit better about messing with the rest of the stuff in the cave. His first investigation was on what looked like a paintball gun.

He ran his fingers over the small blue colored air powered gun. It was sitting on the workbench next to some goggles and another open notebook. According to the design specs it was supposed to fire pellets with invisible paint that could be tracked by the googles. So he slipped them on.

The world got a yellow tinge that felt very familiar to Jaime. And he took a second to look around the cave. Nothing stood out until he looked straight up. The word ‘TEST’ seemed to fluoresce above him. Jaime tried out his own aim with the gun. It wasn’t horrible, he at least hit the ceiling but nowhere near where he was aiming.

Still he had that gun and Jaime wondered if there were any other forms of ammo for it. He spent several minutes searching over the table and in the bins along the wall. And he did find one full of round pellets painted black and neon green that seemed about the right size.

He grabbed one and took aim at a target that Ted must have painted near the Zeta tube. With a thought of ‘here goes nothing’, and ignoring the four quick pulses of pain in his back Jaime pulled the trigger.

An explosion of light and sound filled the cave, and Jaime found himself on his butt. Eyes screwed shut and ears ringing.

He pushed the goggles up and rubbed his eyes as his vision slowly returned. And even before he could hear himself he began laughing. Because that was a flashbang. Ted had them, and the Scarab would have loved...

He stopped laughing and rested his head on his knees, ignoring the short burst of pain from his back and the fading pulses. Because before this happened they were going to figure out how to make them together and now... 

Jaime slowly stood and carefully made his way back to the work bench. While he waited for the ringing in his ears to fully go away he began flipping through Ted’s notebooks again. This time he was looking for anything related to the Scarab. Not, obviously for figuring out how to mimic the Scarab, but just to read about it. And each time he came across a sketch or some entry he just had to smile, even if his eyes were beginning to mist over.

After what felt like hours Jaime stood up, he wasn’t going to let Klarion win. He wasn’t just the Blue Beetle for himself, but for Ted, and Dan and the Scarab.

He pulled the hood from his blue hoodie up and put the yellow goggles over it securing it in place. He made a quick sweep of the cave, grabbing both the spare utility belt and a pair of gloves laid out by the computer. The belt did have one of Kord’s older B.B. guns still holstered on the right and he grabbed the paintball gun along with it’s ammo and looped the belt over it, securing it in place. The ammo went into one of the pouches. And as a last second thought he also grabbed several of the flashbangs and placed them in their own pouch.

He took a practice shot at the target with the B.B. gun, not that he could see if he hit or not before wandering back towards the Bug. The craft fortunately opened as he got near. And Jaime was able to find a full length mirror in a cubby near the back with several of what appeared to be Ted’s old businesses suits.

The beeping of the Bug’s radio cut off his slight chuckles at his superhero ensemble, and he made his way back to the front of the Bug. With a flick of his wrist he answered the call, but as soon as he heard Conner’s voice he flicked it back off again.

Jaime stretched and glared at the radio each time it buzzed, trying to will Conner to stop calling. And after three more calls Jaime thought that he had finally got the message. There was a section of several minutes where it was blissfully silent and Jaime was beginning to wonder if he could sleep if he were stretched out here.

His eyes were closed when the radio went off again. Angrily Jaime flicked his wrist to answer the call, growling before the caller could speak.

“Listen Conner seriously I do not want to talk to you right now, just stop calling.”

A familiar voice answered as Jaime’s hand moved toward the radio to cut it off, “Good thing I’m not him then.”

His hand froze, “Tye?”

“Yeah.”

“Sorry I thought,” He shook his head and finished softly, “I thought you were someone else.”

“Superboy? In the spirit of open and honest communication, he did tell me what was going on.”

Jaime looked away from the radio and whispered bitterly, “That I’m a loose cannon now?”

“That you’re hurting.”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Tye broke in, “it’s the Scarab right?”

“He told you?” Jaime broke in, hovering between hurt and relieved.

“Yes and...”

“Tye I’m sorry you had to be bothered with this,” Jaime dug his nails into his palms, “of all people you shouldn’t have to worry about it. Not after...”

“After the fight at S.T.A.R. Labs?” He cut in.

“Yeah.”

“The Ambassador did that though right?”

Jaime closed his eyes and leaned back against the pilot’s chair.

“Only some of it,” he explained, “the rest was the Scarab and...”

Tye broke in again in a light tone, “Let me take a guess on how it broke down.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does,” Tye answered firmly, “I think Mr. sleazy puppetmaster took over when the sonic got cranked up to 11, and whenever ‘not you’ was obsessed with Green Beetle.”

“Yeah,” Jaime agreed, remembering what the Ambassador thought passed for trash talk. Honestly what villain is really intimidated by ‘how about we up the decibels,’ or what hero by ‘there won’t be enough left for a DNA identification.’

“And I think that your Scarab, he was in control when we fought Red Vulcano together. He made the skeet shooting joke, and he was the one that freaked out when I got hurt.”

“Yeah.” Jaime agreed, because once again Tye was right.

“Jaime do you know how long I beat myself up over that? Whenever I would catch myself thinking of those as good memories. Of the implication that it meant I liked someone who, until literally a few minutes ago, I thought was the Reach puppeteer scum who took you over?”

His eyes flew open as Jaime leaned into the radio. He didn’t bother to hide the fact that his voice was breaking.

“You liked the Scarab?”

“Yeah.”

“Not just when it pretended to be me?” He pushed hesitantly.

But Tye just laughed, “Dude when was the last time you made a gun joke?”

Jaime smiled and returned a small chuckle.

“And he, the Scarab I mean, did get it,” Tye pressed on, “when we were in the desert. Not about having to deal with newfound powers, but about having others trying to control him, treat him as nothing more than a weapon. But still having to obey to an extent to keep family safe. I think he must have fought the Reach too.”

“Yeah,” Jaime kept a sad smile and rested his forehead on the dashboard of the Bug, “Scarab would delay or use tactics it knew were bad, anything to buy time or hurt the Reach.”

“Without being obvious enough that their wrath would come down on your family, right?”

“Exactly,” Jaime closed his eyes and pillowed his hands under his head, “Scarab did so much and nobody saw it, and I... I’ve been complacent. I haven’t been telling as much as I could.”

“Did he ever complain?”

“Not about that, but...”

“No buts,” Tye cut him off.

“I should have done something, I should have...”

“Jaime,” Tye broke in again, “I don’t think he would have blamed you.”

“Of course not,” Jaime gave a half hearted laugh, “hell Scarab barely blamed me when I stupidly handed us over to Green Beetle and consequentially to the Reach.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Jaime could feel a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth, “each time I tried to apologize, I’d get another rant on how it wasn’t my fault but ‘The Impulse’s’ or ‘The Martian’s’ or ‘The Arsenal’s’ or hell even ‘The Nightwing’s’. I think it had one for almost every member of the team. I even got a couple lines on how it was Beast Boy’s fault, there was absolutely no logic in that one, and I swear it made me laugh in a mission briefing.”

“So he told you a joke?”

“I...yeah,” Jaime nodded. The relief at having someone understand was tangible, he couldn’t even hold back the yawn that followed.

“You want me to let you sleep?”

He shook his head and whispered sadly, “Won’t work, It’s too quiet.”

“What if I keep talking then, would that that help?”

“Maybe,” Jaime’s voice was brittle, “but only if you’re not busy.”

“Really, it’s fine.”

“Thank you.” Jaime pulled away from the radio and curled up in the pilot’s chair.

“So right, where to start. I think Mom’s finally over Maurice. She’s not worried about dating right now. But you know, eventually she might. Says I have a veto vote too for what’s it’s worth. Promised if I don’t like the next one she’ll listen before getting in too deep.”

“And speaking of dating Asami is doing well both in school and learning English. She’s a whiz, real smart you know, and I guess she likes what she sees in me. The only thing is that it seems like her powers are beginning to fade. Mine too now that I think about it. Whatever the Reach did must be wearing off. Don’t really know if it’s good or bad yet, just that it’s a thing. Anyway...”

As Tye continued talking Jaime felt himself drift off more and more. His head fell against his shoulder, and he slipped forward in the chair several inches until his feet hit the side of the Bug. And when he couldn’t fight the exhaustion anymore and slipped off to sleep.

  



	3. Return to the Fight

Jaime dreamt that he was captaining a boat. All alone in the middle of the sea. Fog had rolled in as well, obscuring the position of the sun and turning the whole scene monotone, so that it was no longer possible to tell where the grey of the sea ended and the grey of the sky began.

Even his equipment was unable to help. The GPS was dark, maps were sodden or missing, and the compass spun slowly unaffected by anything but its own whims. The only thing that seemed to still be active was the radio beeping out Morse Code that he could feel down to his bones.

‘Di-dah-dit’ for ‘r’ followed by ‘dit’ for ‘e’.

Jaime’s eyes shot open as he slid completely out of the chair, the pulsing pain in his back beginning to fade. He shook his head, grabbed the dashboard and pulled himself up. And when he did so, M’gann’s frantic voice cackled over the radio.

“Alpha to Watchtower, we need an extraction.”

Jaime jumped. He glared at the dashboard trying to figure out exactly what button he had accidently hit.

“Copy that” Bartgirl replied crisply, “Is there something wrong with the Bioship?”

M’gann hesitated, “She’s not responding, and we’re sitting ducks right now.”

“Understood, what are your coordinates?”

“Thirty seven degrees oh seven minutes and twenty six seconds North by eighty two degrees fifty five minutes and forty eight seconds West. We’ve crashed through into an abandoned mine.”

At first the only sound that came through the radio was a rapid clicking sound of Batgirl typing. And Jaime took the time to enter the coordinates M’gann gave into the Bug as well. He just wanted to figure out where they were, he missed having a constant stream of translation and understanding in his head.

But apparently the Bug had others ideas, for even as Batgirl responded to the request with, “we can have someone at your location for a pickup in twenty minutes.”

The dashboard display powered up and the words ‘autopilot engaged’ lit up. Jaime was searching for some way to power it off when M’gann spoke.

“That’s not going to be soon enough.”

Jaime stopped looking for how to disengage the autopilot. Instead he focused on the little numbers below the GPS unit that were prefaced by the letters ETA.

He cut into the radio conversation, “I can be there in five minutes.”

“Negative Blue,” Batgirl responded not missing a beat or questioning why he was on the line, “you are still injured yourself.”

“I’m well enough to perform an extraction, I am going,” he declared as the Bug lifted itself off of the ground before sheepishly adding, “plus I’m not quite sure how to turn the autopilot off, so there is that.”

“Jaime are you sure?” M’gann asked him gently.

The ground flew by under the Bug, and Jaime watched it absently before responding, “yeah.”

“Listen we were tracking Klarion,” She countered.

“If it’s him,” He steeled himself, “then I have to come. I’m not letting him kill any more friends.”

“I understand.”  

Jaime could feel tension ebb away from his shoulders. He didn’t remember when exactly he became tense, but that didn’t stop the relief from being tangible. He glanced at his arrival time again, and tried to think of an appropriate response.

He didn’t have to though as he heard M’gann’s voice shouting over the radio. She sounded distant and he could also hear the occasional grunt or bang.

The Bug was silent as Jaime made a run through of what he had at his disposal. The B.B. Gun, the tracking gun and flashbangs. And while he was sure that the Bug itself had weapons, he had no idea how to access them. The world became tinted yellow as he pulled the goggles back on and mentally prepared himself for the fight ahead.

His stomach lurched when the Bug stopped moving forward and descended for landing. He opened the bay door, because Jaime was not risking breaking his neck trying to use Ted’s more acrobatic entrance method.

He exited with the B.B. gun drawn. And when he was halfway down the Bug’s ramp, a skeleton with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other charged him.

The first blast of the B.B. gun deflected harmlessly off of the shield, and Jaime backed up on the ramp. When he reached the top the skeleton was at the bottom and Jaime fired off another blast of pressurized air, which again had no effect.

With that Jaime reversed directions, and performed the one skateboarding move that he had practiced the most, the one that both he and Tye agreed was the most useful. The controlled fall.

He slid forward, back to the ramp and pointing the gun straight up. The skeleton missed him by centimeters when it slammed its sword down, and Jaime slid directly under it. Normally he’d make a comment about how he really wished his enemies would wear pants, but as it was only a skeleton the point seemed moot. Still he did take the time to fire straight up, sending the bones flying.

It was easy enough for him to twist his back and make sure that none of the bones were in the Bug before he reached the edge of the ramp and skidded to a stop. Perhaps not the most dignified entrance, but it definitely could have gone worse.  

He pushed himself to his feet and brushed himself off. Warily, he looked around for more of those skeletons. There were dozens around the Bioship, although they were all in pieces. As he observed, the vague sound of M’gann’s voice crackling over the radio started up within the Bug, and from his current position he could barely make out the words 'safe to land'. Still that was all that he needed before closing the Bug's bay door and running over to the Bioship..

He made his way over the strewn bones, carefully watching his foot placement because he was determined not to have come this far only to trip and fall on a sword. But instead of tripping on a bone, the pain from his back flared up with a vengeance, dropping him to his knees. He gasped, berating himself because sliding on it had perhaps not been the brightest thing that he had ever done.

And then the pain was gone, just as quickly as it began. And Jaime looked up to see and over extended thrust just above his head. He quickly twisted and shot the skeleton with the B.B. gun, before gingerly getting back on his feet.

Even though it was a shorter distance to return to the Bug, Jaime kept moving towards the Bioship. This time keeping his eyes and ears out for any additional skeletons hiding in the shadows as he finished his approach.

He was not attacked again. However on arrival his heart sank. The bay doors for the Bioship were wide open with most internal lighting off, but he could see broken skeletons inside of her as well.

After stepping onboard, Jaime hesitated. On one hand he really didn’t want to draw the attention of any more of those skeletons, in case his back decided to flare at an inopportune time. Alternately he had taken out two of those things and he really didn’t want to be taken out by friendly fire.

“Hello? M’gann? ” He called, back to the wall and eyes darting over the deep shadows in the ship.

The responding laugh was heartfelt and not sinister in the least, although the suddenness still made him jump.  

He ran after the sound of M’gann’s giggles. He was at the entryway to the bridge when she composed herself to speak.

“We’re in the bridge, but there’s something you should know.”

“Yeah yeah, some of those skeletons are still running around,” Jaime said dismissively as he walked onto the bridge.

M’gann was ducked awkwardly behind a console giving him a sad look of apology that was exactly the same, except for coloration to the look that B’razz would often give him. He was familiar with that look because B’razz never really liked talking to him in his human form which the Martian had associated closely to the deception that the Reach had used to gain his trust.

“It’s ok, I can still take care of myself,” his back twinged again and he grimaced, “kinda. Anyway, you’re looking sorta ‘Martian-y’, is it helping?”

“Helping?” She asked stepping forward.

Jaime had to bite back a grin, for even though he was pleased that his time spent with B’razz meant that he could recognize confusion, this was not the time. Instead he stepped forward and put a hand on the hull.

“To get through to the Bioship.”

“Oh, no it hasn’t. I mean I’m not...”

“I’m sorry...” Jaime said softly, diverting his eyes from M’gann.

“It’s not that.” Conner cut him off.

Jaime looked over. Conner had just entered the bridge. He was carrying a first aid kit in his left hand.

That was the first thing Jaime noticed. The second was how bad Conner looked. He had several long shallow cuts, and a bruise was beginning to form above his left eye. He also held his right arm gingerly against his stomach. On most anyone else on the team, Jaime wouldn’t think much of these injuries. They weren't life threatening, no limbs were missing, and everything would heal. But still on the invulnerable member of the team, they were horrifying.

Conner must have seen the look on Jaime’s face as he immediately said, “I’ll heal, Blue.”

“But who, or what, could hit hard enough to...” Jaime let the question hang.

It was starting to hit him that leaving the Bug while only carrying one thing that qualified as a weapon might not of been the smartest move. Still he had just lost one friend, maybe more, and he would do whatever it took not to lose anyone else.

“Klarion’s summoned skeletons,” Conner deadpanned.

Jaime sucked in air through his teeth making a slight hissing sound. Yeah he figured that he really lucked out with his two encounters.

M’gann looked at him gently. “It wasn’t their strength or skill though. Superboy’s strength and invulnerability gave out mid fight. Right after my own powers”

She gestured to herself. “I can’t even shapeshift, and then the Bioship stopped responding and I don’t know if she is hurt or if it’s because of me.”

“Oh.” Jaime sheepishly scuffed his foot, “Klarion?”

“I suppose that it could be.” M’gann shrugged.

Conner continued on when M’gann trailed off, “But seems unlikely. Kid Flash was complaining about being slow when we landed and Bumblebee’s spare suit was on the fritz on our way over. If anything it’s probably something about this area. This is an abandoned mine, but it’s owned by one of the major suppliers for Belle Reve’s inhibitor collars.”

“Wait K.F. and Bee are here too, where are they?”

“You know how impulsive this Kid can be,” M’gann said softly, “After Superboy got hurt and the Bioship wouldn’t start he was able to lead most of the minions off. Bee followed to keep an eye on him.”

“Ok so, I’ll go after them, and you two get the Bioship connected to the Bug,” Jaime grimaced and whispered, “I’m pretty sure there are tethers or something onboard.”

“No,” Conner interrupted.

Jaime froze because there was no way he was leaving anyone including the Bioship behind. If there were no tethers perhaps the legs could grip or a tractor beam or something, he just had to figure it out. His worry was cut off when Conner continued to talk.

“It’s too dangerous and if you get lost we’re stuck here even longer waiting for you to get back as well.”

Jaime snorted, if that was his only worry, “Listen _ése_ , of everyone here who, ‘A’ has a working weapon and ‘B’ has a way to leave ‘breadcrumbs’?”

He gestured to the paintball gun that he had also brought along. Conner looked unimpressed. And Jaime spoke again, this time his voice was softer and more brittle.

“Please I just... I can’t lose anyone else.”

Conner glared and then stuck his good arm out, “Give me the gloves.”

That snapped Jaime from upset to confused, and he stared at Conner incredulously.   

“They control the Bug, so if you want us to make any progress while you’re gone...”

“Oh right. I uh, I totally knew that.”

Jaime could feel the slight flush on his cheeks as he pulled off Ted’s gloves and tossed them to Conner. On a better day he might have added in a quip about not messing up the paint job, but for now he was more focused on the task at hand.

As he began to leave M’gann wrapped her two long fingers around his upper arm. He turned to face her.   

“I’m sorry, about earlier, I didn’t know.”

He gave her a sad smile, “thank you.”

With a slight nod he slipped out of her grip and ran out of the Bioship. Maybe when he was feeling a bit less raw he’d apologize to her as well, for shouting, for assuming that she knew something that he had never told her. Eventually, he told himself, eventually he would.

He ran down the empty tunnels of the mine, making sure to fire a marker every so often. His trail led down deep, past abandoned trolleys and what appeared to be an old quality assurance office. The office was only slightly creepy door ajar a dim light still shining in the corner. Although that creepy feeling could also be from the growing mass of broken or destroyed skeletons.   

He continued walking and marking, until there was a light ahead. From what he could tell part of the roof had cracked allowing natural light to filter in, gently illuminating a rather large flat area. As he continued to move towards it, he saw another one of the Skeletons move in front of him. It was facing the large cavern, and hadn’t appeared to notice him, yet.

Jaime replaced the paint gun in his belt and grabbed the B.B. gun. He carefully took aim and fired. Nothing happened. He pulled the trigger a second time, and still nothing.

Biting back a groan Jaime examined the gun for any damage. There wasn’t any. But what he did see was a pattern of wires and connections coming to the surface of the handle, right where he would usually hold it.

By now he really wanted to bang his head against the wall, and the only thing stopping him was the armed skeleton that still hadn’t noticed him. Because of course the B.B. gun would need to be held by the glove to be fired. It was a good failsafe actually, it meant that the weapon could never be used against the Blue Beetle, but it sure wasn’t any good to him now. If he had thought about it before he left he could at least given the gun to Conner so someone had protection. As it was his lack of thinking left both groups defenseless.  

He reholstered the B.B. gun and began to back up. He kept his eyes on the skeleton so he was able to notice right away when it heard him and turned.

Jaime’s eyes narrowed, glaring at the now charging skeleton. He didn’t want to run away, he didn’t want to give another enemy to attack him from behind like Klarion did.

So he ran full force at the skeleton. Balance gained from years of skateboarding served him well enough when he jumped on the skeleton’s shield and then continued over it’s head.

Upon landing he slammed his fist at its back, but the effect was negligible. He sprinted into the cavern, turning a full 180 at the entrance to watch for the skeleton. At least in the open he would have a little more maneuvering room. He didn’t particularly want to run straight at a sword again. And besides he figured that there must be something in the cavern which he could use as a weapon.

The skeleton followed him out a few seconds later, and Jaime still didn’t have anything more dangerous than a rock. It made one step towards him and Jaime couched down prepared to either fight or run.

A sudden gust of wind stopped the skeleton cold. And it was soon enveloped in a whirlwind of dust and debris. Half a second later it fell to the earth in parts, and Bart stood dusting his hands off.

Jaime raised his eyebrows, “I thought you were slow now.”

Bart was instantly by his side, “was slow her-man-o, got better.”

“Yeah,” Karen said while approaching from one of the other tunnels connected to the cavern, “by making a deal with Klarion.”

“I didn’t think it was a deal at the time,” Bart pouted. “He showed that bright glowing orb thing and said that if we touched it we would regain our powers. So I did. I just didn’t listen long enough to hear the cost.”

Karen rolled her eyes, but was smiling when she said, “Impulsive. I don’t suppose you know the way out of here Blue?”

“Oh yeah,” Jaime tapped his goggles and pointed towards the opening of tunnel he had marked before asking “But what was the cost?”

The next thing that Jaime knew was that he had been slammed across the cavern. And He hit the ground hard. Before he could pull himself to his feet, a boy wearing what looked like Bart’s old Impulse costume, except colored green and black, appeared in front of him. He gave Jaime a twisted grin and spoke in a singsong voice that sounded just close enough to Bart’s to be creepy.

“Me, Inertia.”

Inertia prepared for another strike, but before it could land a yellow and red blur slammed into him. The following fight was too fast for Jaime to follow. He had no idea who was winning.

He whipped around when he felt a hand on his shoulder. But when he saw Karen crouched beside him he let out a breath. She raised her other hand and showed him what she was holding, a flimsy ring of electronics.

“It’s the innards of an inhibitor collar,” she explained, “We found it in an old office while trying to find our way out. It must have been what they used to test the materials coming out of the mine. I’ve reprogrammed it to work on Inertia, but we still need to get it on him.”

Jaime nodded and glanced back at the fight, “Why doesn’t K.F. ...”

“Kid Flash is not quite fast enough to get the upper hand on Inertia. The power he wanted back when he grabbed the orb was his speed. So the clone that it made is as fast as he is plus some.” Karen explained, wincing as Bart got clotheslined by Inertia and stumbled for half a second, “Besides, it’s too fragile to survive that.”

“I might have a plan,” Jaime whispered to Karen.

He emptied out the remaining ammo from the paintball gun. Gingerly he grabbed a single black and neon green pellet from his belt and loaded it. He then stood and took aim at where the blurs seemed to be congregated.

“Freeze!” He shouted, finger on the trigger.

The blurs stopped, and Inertia had an arm wrapped around Bart’s throat forcing him to become a human shield.  

“I don’t think so!”

Inertia responded to the command in a twisted singsong voice. He applied just enough pressure to Bart’s throat to make him gag before continuing.

“But now you are going to tell me what that fancy little gun does.”

Bart clawed at Inertia’s arm, and his lips began to turn slightly blue. He jerked his head, and Jaime read that message loud and clear. Bart trusted him to take the shot. But Jaime knew that he couldn’t do it.

Jaime removed his finger from the trigger as a sign of submission. But even as he began to speak he did not lower the weapon.

“It’s one of Ted’s inventions. I believe he called it, I swear to God, a bullet time gun. Makes a slow-mo bubble, or something. And that should sap your superspeed.”

As he spoke, he was very careful not to look at Karen sneaking up on Inertia and Bart with the collar. But it was a moot point. Inertia dropped Bart and sprinted over to Jaime, slamming him to the floor and ripping the weapon out of his hands.

Inertia stood over him, grinning widely and pointing the gun at Jaime. “I don’t think so.”

Jaime made what appeared to be a desperate lunge for the gun, but it was too slow. Inertia had already retreated to the far edge of the cavern. And he was still pointing the gun at Jaime when he shouted mockingly.

“If it would slow me down to normal I wonder what it is going to do to you.”

For Bart’s benefit, Jaime tilted his head slightly towards Inertia before grabbing his ears and curling forward with closed eyes, as if he were afraid of the incoming shot.

Jaime knew when Inertia fired the gun, the massive sounding explosion gave that away. And even if he didn’t hear it, the flash of light that he could see even through his closed eyes would have given it away.

Jaime quickly got on his feet, looking towards Inertia. Bart got to him first. And Inertia still disoriented and off balance from the flashbang was unable to fight back as Bart took him down.

Karen got to Inertia next. She placed the inhibitor collar on him as Jaime began moving towards them. Once that was done she tore the arms off of Inertia’s costume and used the fabric to tie his up. Which would prevent him from getting the collar off when he awoke.

Jaime stopped before arriving at the group to pick up the paintball gun from where Inertia had either dropped or thrown it. He took a second to look along it’s barrel. It probably wasn’t made to repeatedly blow up in the face of the person firing it. Besides looking at the slope of the metal kept his mind off of a certain Scarab who he was sure would have absolutely loved that strategy.

Karen stood and threw Inertia over her shoulder, staggering a little under his weight. “We should go before...”

She was cut off by Klarion appearing from a portal that had spawned in the space between the group around Inertia and where Jaime stood alone. Klarion spoke, as Teekl wound around his legs.

“Before what? Things are just beginning to get fun.”

Karen cursed under her breath and Bart began to bait Klarion.

“For us maybe. You’re all out of goons now, so how about you just surrender?”

“So it seems,” Klarion replied silkily.

And then he moved as fast and graceful as a cat to stand directly behind Jaime. He ran his fingers along Jaime’s back, and Jaime had to fight to keep the uneasiness in the pit of his stomach under control. Jaime pulled forward slightly trying to get away without showing weakness, but Klarion prevented that escape by wrapping his other arm around Jaime.

In that hand he was holding a glowing white orb. And Jaime couldn’t help but stare at it. His back started to throb again, but Jaime ignored it. He could only look at, he could only think about the orb.

“What do you say my little Case Zero,” Klarion practically purred in Jaime’s ear, “just one touch.”  

The rush of wind and following thud announced that Bart had body slammed Klarion, forcing him away.

“I don’t think so.” Bart taunted.

The sphere he was holding dropped next to Jaime, and Jaime never took his eyes off of it. It probably didn’t work like he wanted it too, he had no reason to believe that it could bring back the dead. But he couldn’t stop himself from thinking ‘what if it did’.

Klarion smirked at Bart’s glare calmly dusting himself off as he spoke, “isn’t that for him to decide?”

“And what make another Black Beetle,” Karen answered sarcastically, “we saw how well that worked out for the Light last time.”

Jaime didn’t listen to her. He was kneeling beside the orb. He didn’t want the power or the armor. He didn’t want some cheap facsimile of his friend. But one thing made him hold out hope, the fact that Klarion had called him case zero. To him at least that implied that there was something more going on. And hope instead worry only grew when Klarion answered Karen.

“But this one would be completely loyal, and stronger.”

Karen snorted derisively, “We’re not that... Jaime what the hell?”

She glared at him and Klarion grinned like the Chesire Cat. Jaime knew why. He wasn’t supposed to give in to temptation for power. But here he was kneeling at the sphere arm out, hand hovering an inch about the orb. Their attention and silence prompted Jaime to speak, though his voice was little more than a whisper as his hopes bubbled up to the surface.

“You never removed the Scarab, just suppressed it with magic?”

“With a little illusion to sell the con,” Klarion laughed, “it got you into their base didn’t it. And you spread my magical infection far and wide. What do you say, are you going to help me again?”

“Dude,” Bart spoke frantically, “the armor is not worth...”

“No _the armor_ isn’t,” Jaime cut Bart off.

Just as Bart began to sigh in relief, Jaime closed his hand around the orb. His armor instantly enveloped him and, without a thought or command from him, fired off multiple highly aggressive shots at Klarion.

When the dust settled Klarion was standing with Teekl behind a force field. He was laughing unabashedly and was completely unharmed by the blasts.

“Well that plan failed,” He intoned, his smile growing wider, “and now you have to deal with a far more competent and deadlier version of you.”

Jaime watched the sphere with his weapons drawn, but nothing came out of it. His heart pounded and he swept his eyes over the rest of the cavern, but still saw nothing. Adrenaline was pumping, he looked towards his shoulder and whispered, hoping that that grab had done what he thought it would.

“Where would it be?”

He let out a breath that he didn’t remember holding when the Scarab responded in a deadpan, _{You mean the warrior endowed with all the powers you desired?}_

“Yes,” he whispered, crouched in a defensive position and still scanning the cavern.

_{The warrior endowed with the lethal weapons you hate to use and the armor that you just said was not important?}_

“Yes.”

The Scarab clicked in his head, _{ <I> may be misreading the situation, but <I> do not believe that Klarion could produce a clone powered only by the magic of friendship.}_

Jaime relaxed his defensive posture. He laughed, and at first it was quiet and broken. But as the relief began to really set in, it gradually grew into a fit of near hysterical giggling. That he was only able to postpone long enough to look over his shoulder and ask.

“Did you just?”

_{The Milagro changes the channel whenever <you> fall asleep,} _the Scarab’s explanation was laced with fond exasperation, _{and then draws on <you> during the commercials.}_

He continued to laugh, grateful that the bug suit prevented the others from seeing the tears that he felt. He was not going to mess this up again. He...

He was hit in the side by a blast from Klarion. That effectively stopped his giggles, but not his smile. He looked over at Klarion to see him seething and ranting.

“You cheating cheater! Where is my warrior? This is not fair. Not fair at all.”

Jaime’s arm changed into what he recognized as a Strong Force Disruptor. A gun he hadn’t let the Scarab use it before because it was ridiculously lethal. A fact that hadn’t changed. He pressed his unchanged hand onto the weapon and whispered back at the Scarab.

“Dude, no.”

_{And what would <you> suggest?}_

“Have you finished it?” Jaime didn’t want to go into more detail because Klarion was right there, so he hoped the Scarab would pick up on what he was referencing.

_{Oh. Of course.}_

“Will using it against him break the spell?”

Jaime glanced around while the Scarab calculated probabilities. Klarion was on his left and Teekl having transformed into his large sabertooth-ed form, was on his right. Both were preparing another big attack. Behind Teekl, he caught a glimpse of Karen whispering to Bart and gesturing at the large cat.

_{Unlikely,}_ The Scarab finally replied, raising shield to block the incoming attack, _{however killing the Klarion would. And it would prevent him from hurting <you> again.}_

“No,” Jaime shook his head when his shields came back down. He looked back at Teekl and then at Karen and Bart. He grinned and spoke to the Scarab once more.

“But I have an idea, and I’ll still need you to make it.”

His right hand was turned into a strange looking gun almost instantly. And before Klarion figured out what he was doing, he fired it at Teekl. Trapping the cat in a pitch black sphere which he affectionately dubbed the Anti-Magic Bubble.

He then turned towards Klarion, disguising his smile that he still couldn’t shake as the smirk he had worn for so long while on mode, “I wonder how much air it has in there?”

The Scarab huffed, offended, _{The Contra-Quantum-Improbability-Energy-Membrane was created for <your> specifications. It does not block movement of non-magical things, there is plenty of air in there, the cat will not run out, you should know me better by...}_

Jaime spoke again over the voice in his head. Acting as if he had just responded to a short statement.

“So not a lot then? That’s about what, two minutes and twenty one seconds based on current consumption. Oh, two minutes twenty now.”

“You wouldn’t” Klarion hissed, but he didn’t move towards Jaime.

“Wouldn’t I?” Jaime dropped the smile and continued in a harsh whisper, “You hurt me greatly today.”

Klarion summoned a bolt and sent it flying at Jaime, who jumped behind the bubble. He kept it between himself and Klarion. And Klarion stopped trying to get at Jaime, instead focusing his attacks on the bubble itself.

Jaime only smirked, “Tick Tock”

“What do you want?” Klarion hissed at him

Jaime cocked his head still smirking, “are you trying to bribe me, maybe I just want to take out a powerful threat.”

He heard Karen shout at him, but for now he had to ignore it. He could only focus on Klarion for this to work.

“I’ll give you anything.”

“Completely remove the spell,” Jaime ordered, “the one you cast on me, the one that is now spreading and binding other’s power.”

Klarion simply glared at him. But Jaime didn’t budge. But he did speak first, continuing to grin at Klarion.

“Thirty seconds _ése_ , assuming the cat isn’t freaking out. That uses up oxygen quicker you know...”

Klarion ground his teeth and stared at the bubble. He squeezed his eyes shut before relenting.

“Fine,” he growled with a wave of his hand sending streams of light streaking out.

And when Klarion spoke next Jaime could almost believe that he heard his voice breaking.

“Now release Teekl, please.”

The last word was whispered, and Jaime almost dropped the bubble at that second. As it was he had to look away. He locked eyes with Karen who gave him a stern nod before shrinking.

With that conformation Jaime dropped the bubble. As it fell Klarion summoned massive energies full of hate and vengeance into his hand. But then he saw Teekl sitting on the ground, completely fine and grooming himself. The massive attack that Klarion had summed fizzled.

“What?”

“Anti-Magic Bubble.” Jaime clarified, “Only stops magic, and those imbued with great amount of it. But it doesn’t do any permanent damage.”

“You,” Klarion growled at him. And maybe Jaime was projecting a little bit, but he didn’t feel like Klarion’s heart was in the threat.

“We’re just repaying the favor.” Jaime whispered back, “because we know he’s more than a powersource.”

Klarion glared at him until Teekl ran up and jumped on the witch boy's shoulders. With a flick of his wrist Klarion summoned two portals. And Jaime did nothing as Klarion disappeared inside one and Inertia into the other.

“Blue,” Karen spoke breaking the silence, “what the hell was that?”

Jaime sagged, with the adrenalin from the fight gone the emotional roller coaster of the day took a toll on him.

“A bluff,” he whispered.

“Well,” Bart said from where he had appeared beside Jaime, “let’s hope it worked.”

Jaime looked around the cavern but without being able to see the paint that he had left, all of the tunnels looked the same.

“We should head back, which means I...”

His request to armor down so that he could use the goggles was cut off by a shift in his vision that marked the application of a new filter. And he was easily able to see the path that he had marked. He led Karen and Bart through a labyrinth of twists and turns. They walked in silence, although Jaime found that if his vision lingered too long on any rock formation the Scarab would launch into recommendations on the best weapons to demolish it.

That made Jaime grin a bit, because he was sure the Scarab would be excited to play with and learn about some of Ted’s weapons. They had already made a plan to try flashbangs, and maybe they could try using pressurized air like the B.B. Gun. Even the marking gun which as he was seeing now, could be very useful.

Jaime stopped dead in his tracks, because he the Scarab’s filter allowed him to follow the marks that he left, but he did not tell the Scarab about them, unless...

“Were you aware the whole time?”

Jaime ignored Bart, who was at his elbow and giving a questioning response. Instead he focused on the Scarab who was silent. Now Jaime couldn’t help but worry. Because he knew how hard it is to be stuck without any way to affect the outside world. And Jaime could only imagine how much worse it would have been if he was not able to be heard during that time.

He did not notice Karen pulling Bart back and whispering to him. He didn’t notice Karen sending Bart down a tunnel and her taking his position by his side. The only thing he cared about was the Scarab’s response.

_{Apologies.}_

“What exactly are you apologizing for?”

He didn’t bother to whisper or hide the waver in his voice.

_{To preempt <you>,} _the Scarab stated firmly before dropping to a mental whisper, _{and because it was <I> who caused <you> unnecessary pain by attempting to reach through the Klarion’s spell.} _

“Oh. I don’t blame you. I mean it’s not... that is you shouldn’t...It’s... I should have.... ”

_{If you count <my> actions as acceptable, then you must do the same for <yours>.}_

“That’s not how it works _hermano,_ ” but even as he spoke he felt a slight smile forming.

He also felt Karen’s hand gripping his shoulder. He turned towards her.

“I’m sorry. I got a little distracted...”

“It’s alright Blue,” She cut him off, applying a gentle forward pressure to his shoulder, “But the ships are right ahead,  and we should really get out of here.”

“Right, right.”

Jaime was glad to see that the lights were on in the Bioship. And, when Bart got back to them Karen let go of his shoulder to go talk to a smaller greener and more humanoid M’gann. With a quick movement Bart grabbed his hand and squeezed.

“The Bug, he’s crash now right?”

Jaime nodded, and Bart continued talking.

“And you, you’re crash now too right?”

Jaime nodded again still not meeting Bart’s eyes.

“I’m glad,” Bart only hesitated a fraction of a second before adding, “for both of you.”

That statement got Jaime to look at Bart and give him a slow smile. Bart grinned back ear to ear.

“They,” Bart continued gesturing towards Karen and M’gann, “said you might want some time to think now. And that’s crash her-man-o. And if you need me you know where to find me alright?”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

Jaime kept grinning, even as Bart ran back with M’gann and Karen to the Bioship. Jaime didn’t follow them though. Instead he walked up to the Bug. Someone had to take her home.

His armor pulled back as he walked up the ramp and into the Bug. The craft wasn’t that big inside, but still he was halfway to the cockpit before he realized that Conner is in the pilot’s chair.

Jaime froze and stared at his shoes. It was one thing to deal with Conner during a mission. But now, especially knowing that that shove in the watchtower basically caused his injury during this mission, he felt too embarrassed to move. It was only the Scarab’s assurance that M’gann surely would have touched Conner even if he didn’t. And would have passed on the magical contamination that way, which allowed Jaime to finally move and sit in the copilot’s seat.

They followed the Bioship, Conner piloting the Bug like a champ. He didn’t rely on the GPS autopilot and Jaime couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.   

It was Conner who eventually broke the silence in the ship.

“Do you want to go back to the Watchtower?”

“No I think I just want to go home.”

Conner gave him an easy shrug, “I can do that too, no problem. I’ll take her back to the Watchtower after ok?”

Jaime nodded and sunk back down into the chair. He was thinking about closing his eyes when Conner spoke again.

“A couple years back Ted helped the team with a mission. Even showed a couple of us the finer points of piloting the Bug.”

Jaime didn’t look at Conner and tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice when he asked, “are you trying to ask if the team can have the Bug permanently?”

“No, I’m trying to ask if you want me to show you what I know?”

Jaime froze and blinked hard.

“Yeah I’d...” He started, but cut off waiting for the Scarab’s input.

_{This action would be, ‘way acceptable’.}_

“We’d like that.”

For the rest of the flight back to El Paso Jaime leaned forward and listened closely. He and the Scarab both latched onto every word as Conner explained what Ted had taught him. The flight wasn’t nearly long enough for everything but when he left, Conner promised that they’d do it again.

It was easy enough to get out of the Bug while in the air when Jaime had the armor on. Just opening the hatch and Jaime jumping out, wings extended, into the warm desert air.

He had said he wanted to go home, but while flying over El Paso he decided to make a detour. He did call his parents via the armor and made sure that they would be alright waiting just a little longer.

Tye was outside of his house before Jaime could touchdown. He was looking at Jaime, lips pressed together.

“I’m ok. We’re ok. And I, er, we wanted to...”

Tye didn’t let them finish before he started smiling and pulled Jaime into a hug. By the time he let go Jaime was smiling as well.

“If you’ve got time come in,” Tye practically ordered, pulling Jaime towards the door as the armor melted off of him, “I want to hear all about it. From both of you.”


End file.
